by Guest Writers Suzie Cheel and Des Walsh
As backdrop to the beaches where we walk and swim most days looks increasingly like Tourist Beach, Anywhere, The World, we like the fact that here and there some traces of a simpler past remain.
Such as the 19 room Ocean View motel right at the beachfront of famed Coolangatta Beach.
Framed by multi-storey, lookalike apartment buildings, and with its fringe of palm trees, and seriously dated pink and white exterior, it is a lovely reminder of times past.
The only negative aspect is that too few such reminders remain.
Even from a “strictly business” point of view, there is money in nostalgia. The annual “Coolie Rocks On”, 50s and 60s nostalgia festival here, with its rock-n-roll bands and dance events, Elvis impersonator competition, vintage car parades and surfing events, is a great boon to the local community, with visitors to this laid back town estimated to be 100,000 this year and an estimated $29 million plus injected into the community last year for just one week of nostalgia.
What reminders are of the past fuel you now?
Thank you.
– Des Walsh & Suzie Cheel
